Rugops
Rugops was a dinosaur related to Carnotaurus. It lived in what is now Africa, about 95 million years ago. It was a medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur, about 20 feet long as an adult (other estimates put its length at 14 to 17 feet).[1]
| Rugops Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Family: | †Abelisauridae Sereno et al. 2004 |
| Genus: | †Rugops Sereno et al. 2004 |
Rugops lived at the same time as Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Deltadromeus, in the Upper Cretaceous.
Rugops was a carnivore, with weak jaws and small teeth. It may have been a scavenger, feeding on dead animals. It also may have preyed on sauropods, such as Paralititan and Aegyptosaurus, and ornithopods, such as Ouranosaurus. The name "Rugops" means "wrinkled face". The bony wrinkles on its snout may have helped to support a structure, such as horny crest or a wattle, like on a rooster or a turkey.[2]
References
change- ↑ Grillo O.N. & Delcourt R. 2016. Allometry and body length of abelisauroid theropods: Pycnonemosaurus nevesi is the new king. Cretaceous Research 69: 71–89. [1]
- ↑ Sereno, Paul C.; Wilson, Jeffrey A.; Conrad, Jack L. 2004. New dinosaurs link southern landmasses in the mid-Cretaceous. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 271 (1546): 1325–1330. [2]
